Social science historians engage in relatively few large, collaborative projects, yet many of their activities, especially data collection and several aspects of analysis, benefit from what economists call economies of scale. Here I briefly review the historical background of big projects, place research by social science historians in perspective relative to other disciplines, and ponder possible explanations for the dearth of collaborative efforts. Large projects are not to everyone’s taste, and they demand vision, logistical skills, and fund-raising. In conclusion, I suggest 15 large projects that are interesting and feasible.

The article investigates the relations among internal, Continental, and transatlantic migration in late imperial Austria by combining information from passenger records of ships to the United States and internal district-level migration data from the Austrian census. Combined with other statistical sources, a snapshot of migration to the United States is provided in the context of long-standing patterns of internal and Continental migration and the changing socioeconomic structures of the empire. The relationships between internal and transatlantic movements and the determinants of migration to the United States are analyzed by means of regression analysis. In late imperial Austria internal mobility was negatively related to transatlantic migration. This suggests the existence of different migration systems with different patterns of internal, Continental, and transatlantic migration.

In recent debates over the utility of colonial and postcolonial theory for understanding the Irish past, Stephen Howe has suggested that Ireland be conceived as a seedbed for “hybrid forms” of colonialism. This essay presents a way to operationalize that suggestion by taking advantage of variants on classic central-place theory that have been proposed by students of developing countries. The analysis exploits the relatively rich demographic, administrative, and commercial data available for Ireland on the eve of the famine, a period in which the utility of a conventional colonial model is especially germane to major interpretive issues. The authors use various visualization techniques to explore these data and suggest ways of framing further research and interpretation in both Irish history and the study of other societies whose pasts have included colonial relationships.